Winemaker Notes
Bright cherry color with a violet rim. Youthful and fragrant, with aromas of violets and wild forest fruits over a background of toasted bread and strawberry fruit gums and caramel. On the palate these primary fruit characteristics continue to dominate, like a fine summer pudding of berries.
This direct, honest red wine has the power and weight to be a great match for vegetable stews and if a little chilled, will bring the best out of a barbecue.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The young and fleshy red 2018 El Pedal Tempranillo mixes some young-vine fruit from their Finca Emperatriz estate, but it also has grapes from other vineyards in Fuenmayor, Navarrete and Hornos de Moncalvillo. Therefore, it does not carry the name Finca La Emperatriz, which is reserved for the estate wines. The aim is to produce a fresh and easy-drinking Tempranillo matured in 500-liter oak barrels and concrete where the oak does not play a leading role.
Barrel Sample: 90-91
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James Suckling
A balanced and silky red with berry, cherry and chocolate aromas and flavors. Medium body. Fine tannins. Delicious finish.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.